Texas man catches 60-year-old alligator gar in Brazos River

William Axford, Houston Chronicle

Updated
1:36 pm CDT, Friday, October 13, 2017

Texas Parks and Wildlife said angler Isaac Avery of Longview caught a 197-pound, 7.39-foot alligator gar bow fishing in the Brazos River on Sept. 9, 2017. The alligator gar is 60 years old, considered among the oldest fish aged and documented by the department.

See the biggest fish that have been caught in the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas state lines up ahead.

Texas Parks and Wildlife said angler Isaac Avery of Longview caught a 197-pound, 7.39-foot alligator gar bow fishing in the Brazos River on Sept. 9, 2017. The alligator gar is 60 years old, considered among the

Texas Parks and Wildlife said angler Isaac Avery of Longview caught a 197-pound, 7.39-foot alligator gar bow fishing in the Brazos River on Sept. 9, 2017. The alligator gar is 60 years old, considered among the oldest fish aged and documented by the department.

See the biggest fish that have been caught in the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas state lines up ahead.

Texas Parks and Wildlife said angler Isaac Avery of Longview caught a 197-pound, 7.39-foot alligator gar bow fishing in the Brazos River on Sept. 9, 2017. The alligator gar is 60 years old, considered among the

Michael Baird, a biologist with the department, said in a release that the fish was tagged by researchers a few years ago.

"I tagged this fish near Tawakoni Creek, a large Brazos River tributary just down from Waco, back in March 2012 while doing a mark-recapture study," Baird said. "It appears she hadn't moved much since we tagged her in 2012, and she grew approximately 2.55 inches since tagging."

A fisherman in Texas made a record catch using a McDonald's chicken McNugget. Sean Dowling (@seandowlingtv) has more.

Media: Buzz60

The department determined the fish is 60 years old. It was most likely born during a flood in the Waco area between April to July in 1957.

"What we've seen is that fish over the age of 50 typically come from times when these huge flood pulses occurred, and those events likely create giant year classes of these fish," research biolosit David Buckmeier said in a release.

The world record for alligator gar was caught in Mississippi in 2011 when an 8-foot 5 inch, 327-pound fish was caught. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department examined the fish and estimated its age at 95 years.

The state of Texas permits the harvest of one alligator gar per day with no minimum length limit. Bow fishing, rod and reel and jug lines are all legal methods for harvesting the fish.